Games You've Beat in 2014

[Strangelove]

Child of Light. Pretty rad. It actually gets more fun as it gets more difficult and status effects start mattering.

[toxicitizen]

Thief.

Well that only took me two and a half months... I finally took the time to fire it up and play through the last mission just now. At some point, I was going to write a long post defending it against the shitty reviews it got. But somewhere around the third time I got completely side-tracked from it by another game, I kinda realized it was missing something at its core. I still think it's a good game, though. Probably the worst of the series (definitely worse than 1 and 2 but I never got around to playing Deadly Shadows). But it's still a Thief game and a competent one at that. And, despite its flaws (and holy shit it has some major ones), that alone makes it better than most of what's out there for me.

Its main problem is the story. It's complete nonsensical dogshit. Compared to the first two games, that's a major disappointment right there. I mean, fuck, they had their work cut out for them. The Trickster, the Hammerites, The Pagans, the fucking Keepers! All the factions and major players of the old games were infinitely more interesting than whatever this nonsense was supposed to be. I get that they probably wanted to do their own thing but come on, if you're gonna call it Thief then at least keep something.

 

But the gameplay is still great. There's some seriously questionable design decisions that were made (context-sensitive jumping and rope arrows, I'm looking at you) but it still works. Then again, most of the story missions go for a more scripted action-y vibe. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing in small doses but, to put it into perspective, the most fun I had with the game was exploring the city and doing side-missions. And most of the side-missions consist of little more than 1) find room then 2) steal all the things, so that's not to say they're incredible. That being said, the client jobs were definitely the highlight of the experience. There's unfortunately only half a dozen of them (7 if you get the Bank Heist DLC). They're a bit on the short side but they're not bogged down by the shitty story and focus solely on actual thievery. The Bank Heist DLC was probably my favorite by far, even ignoring nostalgia. It's significantly better designed than pretty much every other level in the entire game and breaking into that vault was incredibly fun and satisfying.

 

Overall, it's massively disappointing for an hardcore Thief fan like me but there's still a solid game to be enjoyed there. Just don't play it for the story.

[danielpholt]

Thief.....

 

....Overall, it's massively disappointing for an hardcore Thief fan like me but there's still a solid game to be enjoyed there. Just don't play it for the story.

 

I put around 10 hrs into that and then suddenly stopped playing. I went from enjoying it to absolutely hating it inside half a mission. I doubt I'll go back for it at this point. 

 

I myself just finished Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP on my iPad. It was all chugging along great until the game forced me to take a 13 day hiatus, thus totally removing me from the game and (upon my return) allowing me to totally forget what was going on. That aside, it's a joy.

[toxicitizen]

Because of the moon thing? Can't you just change your iPad's clock to get around that? There's also a room in the game where you can cheat your way through that part. Allows you to change the moon's position or something. I don't remember how to open it but it wasn't exactly obvious, I had to look it up online.

[danielpholt]

Apparently you have to get the moon changing thing before you get either of the moon trigon things, I wasn't aware of this until after I got the Dark Moon Trigon. And as for changing the clock over, I could have done that, but I'd rather not have to. 

[deanb]

I beat Batman: Arkham Origins.

 

I think I did a lot more of the side stuff than I usually would do in these kinds of games. Shame much of it is largely a copy of the prior games with very little new or original added. Obviously the biggest part being

 

Jesus Christ the fucking Joker again?

 

 

Anywho, now to find something to amuse me between now and Watch_Dogs, so about 2 weeks or so of gaming to fill.

[toxicitizen]

Persona 4 Golden.

 

Jesus, these games are so fucking long! For some reason, I thought this one was shorter. I was 40 hours in when I put it aside after the holidays and when I picked it up again about a week ago I expected there was maybe 20-30 hours left, at most. Turns out it was more like 50. My clear save is close to 90 hours. Oh well, at least I didn't take 3 years to finish it this time...

 

As far as the story goes, I think I liked P3 more. P4 is a better game overall but, while the murder-mystery plot was entertaining enough and did a good job of keeping things interesting, the resolution just wasn't as satisfying as P3's. And keep in mind, I left P3 unfinished for so long that by the time I actually beat that damn game I had no idea what the fuck was even going on anymore. Also, I did the true ending path and apparently that final dungeon wasn't in the original PS2 release. So, technically, I beat the original final boss a few days ago and that one kinda came outta nowhere.  The bonus final dungeon gave it a bit more context but man, now I'm kinda glad I never got around to playing my PS2 copy. That ending would've been a massive letdown.

 

As for the gameplay, it's mostly identical to P3 but with some key improvements here and there. Having direct control over party members makes a world of difference, I don't think I could go back to P3 now (although man, I'd be all over a native Vita port/remake of P3 similar to Golden). Also, at first I was disappointed that there wasn't a uber-dungeon like Tartarus but the dungeons felt a lot more varied and unique than the Tartarus blocks as a result, so I think the game was better off for it. Honestly, even if there wasn't still a bunch of games I want to play on Vita, I think this game alone would be enough for me to be happy with my purchase. It's just that good.

 

Now bring on Persona 5 already! Also that dancing game. I'm totally getting that.

[Mister Jack]

Did you actually get the true final ending?

 

 

The way you're saying it makes it sound like Marie was the last boss you fought, but there's one more after that which you can only access on the absolute last day of the game when you're about to go home.

 

[toxicitizen]

Did you actually get the true final ending?

 

 

The way you're saying it makes it sound like Marie was the last boss you fought, but there's one more after that which you can only access on the absolute last day of the game when you're about to go home.

 

 

Well, yeah, but only after I made that post.

 

 

I knew there was another dungeon that I could unlock but I thought it was for an optional boss, kinda like the Reaper. I didn't think it would add anything to the plot. So I got the "good" ending and made my clear save on a separate slot since I figured the other boss would be hard as balls and I might get stuck in the dungeon. I was surprised when it turned out to add so much to the story. It does offer a more satisfying resolution but man, what were they thinking hiding it behind such a convoluted series of actions?

 

Unlocking this final dungeon and even just activating the true ending path in the first place are both so easily missable. If I hadn't accidentally found out that there even was a true ending I'd have never looked up the correct steps and would've been none the wiser. If I had actually overwritten my save after the first ending and only afterwards found out I had missed out on the real true ending, I would've been furious!

 

Edited May 16, 2014 by FLD

[TheMightyEthan]

Just finished Walking Dead: Season 2: Episode 3.  My interest had waned slightly after Episode 2, but man after this I am super ready for Episode 4.

 

Interestingly, my choices made a smooth graph from being the decided minority to being the decided majority:  for the first choice only about 20% of players did the same as me, the second one was just under 40%, third was 50%, fourth was just over 60% and the last one was 80%.

[Mister Jack]

Got a couple of half finished games out of my backlog.

 

 

THERE.  I FUCKING FINISHED IT.  Now I can move on from this god damn game.

 

 

Some technical problems kept me from finishing this one for a while.  Went back and completed it so I could move on to Transistor.  I know the games are unrelated, but it just felt wrong to download the next game without even finishing this one.

Edited May 21, 2014 by Mister Jack

[toxicitizen]

THERE.  I FUCKING FINISHED IT.  Now I can move on from this god damn game.

Move on to Dark Souls, that is.

[Mal]

The real Souls starts here. _{Praise the sun.}

[Mister Jack]

 

THERE.  I FUCKING FINISHED IT.  Now I can move on from this god damn game.

Move on to Dark Souls, that is.

 

 

If I hated Demon's Souls, give me five reasons why I would like Dark Souls.  I'm not even saying that to be a dick.  I want to know why everyone busts a nut over Dark Souls but Demon's is still a cult thing.  Are they that different?

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

 

 

THERE.  I FUCKING FINISHED IT.  Now I can move on from this god damn game.

Move on to Dark Souls, that is.

 

 

If I hated Demon's Souls, give me five reasons why I would like Dark Souls.  I'm not even saying that to be a dick.  I want to know why everyone busts a nut over Dark Souls but Demon's is still a cult thing.  Are they that different?

 

 

Why in the holy name of FUCK would you ever play a game for so long (this isn't exactly a CoD campaign) when you hate it? Seriously, there's a cut-off point in there somewhere.

[toxicitizen]

If I hated Demon's Souls, give me five reasons why I would like Dark Souls.  I'm not even saying that to be a dick.  I want to know why everyone busts a nut over Dark Souls but Demon's is still a cult thing.  Are they that different?

Is Demon's Souls cult? I see people talking about it almost as much as Dark, usually calling it superior (which I disagree with). But really, it probably boils down to Demon's still being a Playstation exclusive while Dark is multiplat. More people have played Dark, plain and simple.

 

And to echo what FDS said, if you actually finished the game then why would I assume that you hated it? If you hated it so much, why did you bother finishing it? I mean, it's a pretty long game. I would expect anyone to either be won over or toss it aside before the middle.

 

I could probably come up with 5 reasons why I think Dark is a better game but really, if you hated Demon's Souls so much then I don't see how you'd feel any different towards Dark Souls. They're different but they're not THAT different. Most people view them as part of the same series for a reason.

[Mister Jack]

Because A) people kept giving me shit for not finishing it and B) I didn't want to let the game beat me.

[toxicitizen]

Transistor.

 

So, I went into this one with high expectations even though I never quite understood why everyone creamed themselves so hard over Bastion. It was good but it seemed like everyone else was seeing something in it that I didn't. Transistor also felt a lot like that until something finally clicked in the last hour and a half.

 

Everything about it screamed at me that I should be loving it. The visual style and aesthetics were great, the music was amazing and the semi turn-based combat should've been right up my alley. I think a big part of it was that the game doesn't really explain much to you, which I'm pretty sure is deliberate. So, for the first few hours, I was using the Turn() ability wrong and that made for some frustrating moments where it felt like I was constantly being punished but wasn't really sure what I was doing wrong.

 

Once I finally realized how I was being an idiot, though, everything fell into place. This game is fucking great and now I'm kinda kicking myself for ruining my first playthrough like that. Oh well, there's still recursion mode I guess.

[Mal]

Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure

 

That was actually quite short but it seems like I have maybe an hour or three more in the way of side quests. I need to get the different outfits anyways.

 

Isn't Parin cute!? Seriously, more games need better idle and movement animations. Its quite something to see Parin land after a jump.

 

Besides that, gameplay was normal. I like the way they handled the various moves sets but I wished there were quick ways to switch out elements and outfits. Camera work was as expected from a PSP game... aka crappy but it is manageable.

Edited May 23, 2014 by MaliciousH

[toxicitizen]

Persona 4 Arena.

 

Just finished the story mode. It's a great fighting game but I was in it primarily for the story and... it was a tad disappointing. It was great at first but it's very similar to BlazBlue's story mode where it's essentially a visual novel with the occasional fight. And having to run through it with every single character to get the whole picture means you experience the same events repeatedly, watch the same cutscenes, go through slight variations of the same dialogues, etc. And what's kind of annoying is that they don't really align very well. Depending on who you're playing as, some events have different outcomes so in the end it's hard to have a clear picture of exactly what's supposed to have happened.

 

This worked for BlazBlue because the lore allows for every single branching path to be canon, even the joke endings or the bad ones where the characters die. But here, it just feels kinda weird because it's considered a canonical sequel to P4. At least it was mostly straightforward, no convoluted branching paths like in BB. Also, it was pretty cool to find out what happened with the P3 cast after P3's ending. That alone made it all worthwhile.

 

Apparently, Ultimax (the sequel) will have a completely different structure. Instead of going through the same story with every single character, it'll be split in two parts big parts. One from the P3 side and one for P4. That sounds like a massive improvement because the current format just wasn't a good fit for the kind of story they're telling.

[FMW]

Transistor.

 

The combat is good and the art is good and the music is good and the voice actor is good.

 

So why isn't this game like super epic best ever?

 

I think that the game honestly would have benefited from a slightly less ambitious narrative structure.  For way too much of the game I didn't properly understand what I was doing, what the antagonist and protagonist motivations were, and how my current mission contributed towards the larger goal.  Like, Bastion kept some secrets and had a reveal at the end, but right away from the beginning there were really clearly outlined goals.  "There was a calamity, get to the sanctuary".  "The sanctuary is broke, go fix it".  "The girl got kidnapped, go save her".  Without giving everything away the game still gave me pretty clear goals and reasons to pursue them.  That's what I think is missing from Transistor.

 

But just because the narrative structure doesn't do a great job of motivating the player to push forward, the actual game is so rad that I did anyway.  It concluded with a great boss fight that showed off all the best parts of the game and an inexplicable ending that showed off the worst.

 

It was interesting and had lots of good parts.  I'm satisfied with my purchase.  Will certainly play again.  Not really interested in using the unlockables to add difficulty though.

Edited May 24, 2014 by Frosted Mini-Wheats

[MetalCaveman]

 

 

 

God is dead

 

 

 

It was fun, maybe once I finish some other games from my backlog I'll go back and start a new game+ playthrough

[Mister Jack]

I bought a collection of arcade games on the ps3 for five bucks, which was pretty sweet.  I dunno if this counts as "beating" it but I managed to get the platinum trophy.  A lot of them were admittedly fairly easy (play for 15 minutes, get 10,000 points) but some of them were much more difficult (blow up Sinistar, beat level 1 of Smash TV on one credit).

 

Only about 15 out of the 32 games really appeal to me but for five bucks I think that's good enough.

[TheMightyEthan]

For me, with games that don't really have an "end" per se, I count myself as having beaten them when I feel like I've played them enough to say I'm done with it without feeling like I've abandoned it early.  So like with Civ V I've played it for 340 hours, so I'd say I've "beat" it even though it doesn't really end.

[toxicitizen]

Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention.

 

Man, I'm on fire lately. That was pretty much the last unfinished game I had to beat. I had played through a good chunk of the story when I first bought it a couple months ago but then I got busy and just kinda forgot about it. Finally got around to playing the last few chapters.

 

I had already played the PS3 version but, as expected, the game just feels so much better on a handheld. The story is the same ridiculous sappy crap but it looks a lot better on a small screen. It's not like the game's very basic visuals really benefited from being displayed on a big screen in the first place but, for some reason that is beyond me, when they made this one they somehow figured that they didn't need to create HD sprites. So it just looks like blurry shit on PS3. It wouldn't be far-fetched to look at the PS3 version and wonder if you accidentally put in a PS2 disc. The Vita's OLED is much kinder to it in that regard.

 

I was planning on starting Tales of Symphonia as soon as I was done with it but now I'm kinda tempted to just dig into the post-game stuff. There's always a ton of post-game shit to do in Disgaea but this version also includes all of the PS3's DLC, so there's probably another 30+ hours in there even if I don't try to go for the absolute hardest hidden boss.